Country diary

A highly managed landscape, the forest is an arena of competing interests. All manner of balances need to be maintained. There was a time when the number of crows and other corvids was controlled. In recent years the policy has been to leave them alone. Their numbers have increased considerably, and now they are being joined by additional predators. Goshawks are back, buzzards are flourishing and it can be only a matter of time before ravens and red kites make their home in the forest.

Signs prominently placed every year ask people to act responsibly in the areas favoured by ground-nesting birds. It's a moot point how well this request is heeded, but the need for care is actually wider. The presence of ramblers and the free roaming of dogs unsettles birds, whether or not they are ground-nesting. There's a balance to be kept, too, when restoration work is needed. Footpaths broaden with use. Constant wear pushes back the vegetation. The erosion that follows opens up the well-drained, sandy soil essential for the survival of many insects. Mini banks are created that are a godsend for mining bees and the digger wasps that nest underground, making a chamber in which to store paralysed prey to feed their young. Such smaller species are vital to a healthy ecology. Their needs are often overlooked.

A group of fallow deer in the west of the forest numbers well over 100. Their impact on farmland is serious. The grass of the lush meadows is far more palatable than that on the arid heaths, and a more plentiful food source than the woodlands they are exhausting. One local farmer went out in the early hours recently to examine a cow due to calve. Some 71 deer raced out of the pasture as he entered. The balance of nature is important. The question is: what are the legitimate checks in this conservation-conscious age?